Focaccia with Grapes / Schiacciata con l'Uva

"Schiacciata con l'Uva" is a traditional flatbread made in Tuscany-what everyone else in Italy calls "Focaccia", in the autumn. Nicely golden and crisp on the outside, laid with juicy sweet red grapes and sprinkled with brown sugar, this focaccia tastes wonderfully delicious with a glass of Chianti! Don't you love its rustic look!

Recipe Sources:

dajana-bakerscorner

epicurious

kingarthurflour

• 300 ml Water, lukewarm
  
  
• 30 g Honey
  
  
• 400 g Spelt flour #1050©angiesrecipes
  
  
• 1/2 tsp Salt
  
  
• 7 g Instant dry yeast
  
  
• 500 g Seedless red grapes
  
  
• Extra virgin olive oil
  
  
• 50 g brown sugar
  
  

1. Place water, flour, caster sugar, salt and instant dry yeast in the order they are listed into the pan of your bread machine, program the machine for dough, and press "Start".
   
   
2. While the dough is rising, rinse and dry the grapes. When dough cycle is complete remove the dough from machine. Take 2/3 of the dough and roll it out thin on a baking paper greased with olive oil. Place 2/3 of the grapes on the dough and sprinkle with 30 grams of brown sugar.
   
   
3. Roll out the remaining dough and cover the bottom sheet with the grapes on it. Lift the edges of the bottom sheet over the upper one and press lightly to join them. Move the focaccia together with the baking paper to a baking tray. Brush the surface with oil, place the remaining grapes on top and sprinkle with the remaining 20 grams of brown sugar.
   
   
4. Bake the focaccia in an oven preheated to190C/375F for 25 to 30 minutes utill it is golden brown. Serve it warm with a glass or two Chianti.

Potato latkes

It's hell being me. I want you to know that. Hell. When I read all those identity lit books, you know: White Teeth, Small Island, Everything Is Illuminated, Icarus Girl, all that jazz, I laugh bitterly. Ha! They know nothing about identity crisis. Not one thing.

They can try growing up in Hampstead Garden Suburb in the Eighties, being called Esther, surrounded by Jewish neighbours, sent to a school with such a high intake of Jewish girls that on Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah we got to watch videos in all our classes because attendance dropped to 15%, be handed a Learn Hebrew book by their very confused father, but throughout all this being also told that they are a Protestant and not at all Jewish, then going to Westminster school and Bristol University only to be stunned and a bit frightened to find out that NOT ONLY is everyone in the world not Jewish, some people will say mean things right to your face about how Hampstead Garden Suburb is full of Jews and how a charity collection at Golders Green station "wouldn't have much luck"... well, then and only then, can these whiney bastards come crying to me about not knowing who they are.

I can never be a Jew because I am a Protestant, despite what my bookish, vaguely "foreign"-looking father might fervently wish, (to give him access to an intellectual hinterland that would explain who he is so neatly). I am a goy, a shiksa. I am not chosen. All my childhood friends were, oh yeah, plenty of identity sloshing around for them. But not for me. Not. ME.

Despite the confusing aspect of my upbringing, maybe it's a good thing I'm not Jewish. As far as I can tell, to be Jewish is to suffer, and God only knows I suffer enough what with my wonky teeth and my weak veins and my chronic heartburn. There's only so much more that I could take.

But my friend Adam really is Jewish. Through and through. If he were a dog and there was a religious section in Crufts, he would win it. He is kosher! One hardly ever meets anyone kosher because it makes socialising with not Jewish people tricky; to be kosher means you cannot eat meat which, (among other things), hasn't been purchased from a kosher butcher. And most people can't do that because all the kosher butchers in London are in Golders Green, which is, let me tell you, the middle of nowhere.

Whenever my friend Adam goes to friends houses for dinner he can only eat the vegetables. So I thought it would be nice to throw him a Friday night supper with proper actual meat and everything.

Only I am going to have to practice for this little performance because, despite my serious identity confusion, I don't know anything about kosher cooking. My plan is to make a dinner of chopped liver and potato latkes to start, cholent (which is a kind of sticky stew made with beans and barley that my husband knows how to make) and then a flourless chocolate cake. But now I'm worried that this is just like a hilarious cliche spoof Jewish dinner, like having a Welsh person round and feeding him three courses of leeks. (My mother is Welsh, just to confuse matters. But she keeps it quiet.)

The element that most troubles me is the potato latkes, which are a kind of hash brown. Frying potato from raw is incredibly hard, because what potato likes to do most is go very soggy and then  !!suddenly burn!!

I took to Claudia Roden's Book of Jewish Food, which has a recipe for latkes, obviously, and she said they are easy, which they absolutely are not. I had to adapt the recipe as I went to save them from sheer disaster.

Anyway, here we go, potato latkes:

Makes about six.

5 large-ish new potatoes, or any waxy potato will do
1 medium shallot
salt
1 egg
oil for frying NOT olive oil - groundnut or peanut
1/2 tablespoon of self-raising flour

1 Peel and grate the potatoes on the big-hole gratey bit of your cheese grater. Put the strips in a colander and rinse them very well in cold water to get rid of the starch, which apparently does unholy things if left to run riot. Then press an appropriate-sized bowl on top of them and squeeze and squeeze until you've got as much water out of them as you can. Alternatively, you can bunch the potato strips in a tea towel and swing them round your head to dry. I haven't done this, but I hear it works

2 Add to the potato strips the onion, grated on the smallest gratey-thing of your cheese grater

3 Whisk one egg with 2 good pinches of salt, and toss the potato strips in it until they're all coated. Sprinkle over the flour and mix in. Claudia Roden says that adding flour makes the latkes taste less nice but she can get bent because a) it does nothing to the flavour and b) there's no way in hell you can get your potato strips to stick together in the pan if you haven't added a bit of flour.

4 Heat about three tablespoonfuls of oil in a pan until very hot. Scoop about one tablespoonful into your hand and shape is as best you can into a flattish oval shape. The mixture will still be very soggy and gross, so squash as much liquid as you can out of it into the bowl and then lower into the pan, turning the heat down as you do to about half its maximum setting.

5 Cook these for a while, about 8 minutes, four on each side. Maybe even ten. Don't let the pan get dry because your latkes will burn; keep topping up with oil and they ought to go golden brown

The first two of these you do will be a disaster and you'll want to cry and smash things and take my name in vain. The next two will be better and by the last ones you do, you'll have nailed it. They ought to be crispy and crunchy on the outside and melty in the middle. Yum yum. Eat hot, with more salt and sour cream if you like. You can also add to the mixture, if you're feeling rakish and smart, ground black pepper and parsley.

Peach Nougat Spelt Cake

A slightly dense, moist butter cake with ripe, fresh, and juicy peaches and rich, gooey nougat atop makes a truly succulent late-summer delight with a glass of sparkling wine.

Batter	Topping
250 g Spelt #630 flour©angiesrecipes 2 tsp Baking powder 100 g Sugar 2 Eggs 150 g Butter, softened 6 tbsp Milk	6 Fresh peaches©angiesrecipes, peeled, halved and pitted 200 g Nougat Some raspberry jam Some pistachio, chopped

1. Peel and halve the peaches. Gently fan out the top of halves whilst still keeping them all together. Line a 30x.33cm baking tray with paper. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Place the nougat in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir until it is melted and smooth.
   
   
2. Whisk the spelt flour and baking powder in a mixing bowl. Add in sugar, eggs, butter and milk. Beat briefly with a hand mixer on slow speed, then increase the speed to high and beat for 2 minutes until a smooth dough forms.
   
   
3. Press the dough evenly onto the prepared tray. Arrange the peach halves, fanned-out side up, in 4 lines, setting them 1 inch apart and pressing each gently into the dough. Spoon the melted nougat to fill the gaps between lines.
   
   
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes. Strain the raspberry jam through a fine sieve into a bowl. Remove the cake and cool on the wire rack. Brush the peach halves with the jam while it’s still warm, and scatter the chopped pistachio on the nougat. Slice the cake and serve.

Thank you, kitchen flavours and alwayswinner786, for passing the awards to me.

Kitchen Flavours	Tips for Delicious and Healthy Cooking

Chicken with Lee Kum Kee Plum Sauce / 苏梅酱汁鸡

This light brown sauce is made from preserved Chinese plums, quality ginger, and chilies. This is an excellent dipping sauce for any roasted meat dishes and for stir frying.

	Sauce
200 g Chicken breast 1/3 tsp Salt 1/5 tsp Chicken bouillon 60 g Cornstarch 1/2 tsp Baking soda 1/2 Egg Some water 1 tsp Minced garlic 1 tsp Sesame seeds©angiesrecipes	2 tbsp Sweet plum sauce©angiesrecipes 30 ml Water 1 tbsp Sugar 1/2 tsp White vinegar 1/5 tsp Salt 1 tsp Cornstarch

1. Cut the chicken breast into 2cm dices, marinate with the salt and chicken bouillon and set aside for 15 minutes. Combine the cornstarch and baking soda, add in egg and some water to make a thick batter.
   
   
2. Heat up a wok with enough oil until hot. Dip the diced chicken into the batter. Shake off the extra batter and deep-dry the chicken for 2 minutes. Scoop out and drain. Return the chicken to the wok and deep-fry until very crispy.
   
   
3. Fill another skillet with a little of oil, add in garlic and stir until fragrant. Combine all the sauce ingredients and add into the skillet. Return the fried chicken to the skillet and stir until the chicken are completely coated with the sauce. Transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle some sesame seeds over.

Pear Financier Tea Cake

These delicious, moist tea cakes were named long ago by a pâtisserie near the Bourse, the Parisian stock exchange, who cleverly baked them in the shape of gold ingots to please their wealthy clientele. The basis of the cake butter, egg whites, powdered sugar and almond meal. While delicious on its own, the Financier can also be flavoured with seasonal fruits such as raspberries, peaches or pears. Financiers are often baked in the rectangular mould.

• 2 Pears, peeled and cut into 1cm dices
  
  
• 100 g Butter, melted
  
  
• 80 g Almond meal©angiesrecipes
  
  
• 40 g All-purpose flour
  
  
• 80 g Icing sugar
  
  
• Pinch of salt
  
  
• 1/2 tsp Almond extract
  
  
• 3 Egg whites, lightly beaten
  
  
• 1 tbsp Pistachio, chopped
  
  

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Thoroughly butter the financier moulds and place them in the freezer to resolidify the butter and make the financiers easier to unmould.
   
   
2. In a large bowl, combine the almond meal, flour, icing sugar and salt. Mix to blend. Fold in the lightly beaten egg whites, almond extract and melted butter.
   
   
3. Fill each mold almost to the rim and place some diced pears on top. Bake for 12 minutes or until the financiers have become light brown on top and are springy to the touch. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. Sprinkle the top with some chopped pistachio.

Peach Rucola Salad with Mozzarella

With all the healthy and fresh summer fruits and veggies available in local supermarkets, it's easy to brighten up a bowl of tedious lettuce salad. I used peach (now in full season), cherry tomatoes, strawberries, rucola (simply the best, well, for me) and finally a little of Mozzarella di Bufala. Sprinkle some croutons over if desired and serve with Champagne dressing or any of your favourite vinaigrette. A perfect light lunch. I had them 3 days in a row. The possibilities for a sensational salad are endless, so be creative!

Recently I have received a set of Girard’s Salad Dressing, which was the prize that I won at the Summer Salad Challenge- Girard's Salad Dressing Giveaway hosted by Catherine at Living The Gourmet. The package contains 3 new Girard's salad dressing flavours: Apple Poppyseed, Creamy Balsamic, Peach Mimosa as well as their signature Champagne Dressing.

• 2 Ripe peaches
  
  
• 80 g Rucola
  
  
• 150 g Mozzarella, cut into smaller pieces
  
  
• Strawberries, optional
  
  
• Cherry tomatoes, optional
  
  
• Girard’s salad dressings
  
  

1. Wash peaches, rubbing to remove fuzz. Cut in half and remove pits. Thinly slice peaches. Place peach slices in a serving plate. Add rucola and Mozzarella to plate with peaches. Add dressing and toss.

Breakfast

There are all kinds of things that people forget to tell you about being pregnant. None of them, I hasten to add, are especially bad (probably why they - whoever 'they' are - forget to tell you), they are just odd.

For example, even when the morning sickness fades away into a bad memory, like the longest and baddest hangover you ever had, the race is still on in the morning to eat something - and fast, before you're, err, "overcome". I won't get any more specific because I don't want to put you off your 4pm Twix, which you are no doubt eating right now at your desk.

I don't mind waking up early. I quite like early mornings - the quiet, the sense of smugness, the excuse to have an afternoon nap, the excuse to GO BACK TO BED AT 8PM. But at first I couldn't quite believe that I was expected to get out of bed at 6.30am and go downstairs - trudge trudge trudge - to get myself some cereal, so instead I kept a banana by the bed and ate it as soon as my eyes pinged open and then went back to sleep. But that became gross. And I felt sorry for my husband, who would be caused to have bizarre dreams about being married to a bowl of fruit.

So now I just suck it up and slip out of bed and accept that from now on, for a few years, my day is going to start at about 6am.

Punishment museli alone, which I have written about before, is now out. I need to eat so, so much more in the morning than a bowl of dry flakes splashed with semi-skimmed that I've had to get serious and turn to yoghurt. In London I have three large dollops of whatever yoghurt I've snatched off the shelves at Waitrose, a sprinkling of punishment museli, chopped strawberries (which I keep in the fridge much to my husband's dismay and disgust) and a really generous squeeze of squeezy honey (for convenience. My husband doesn't like this either because the squeezy honey leaks all over the larder, so now I have to keep it on its own little plate. CHUH. Although I ought to point out here that he's been very understanding about other pregnancy stuff like me lying down for most of the day).

I eat it in this witching hour on the sofa, while watching episodes of Season 5 of the West Wing, before my husband gets up and goes to the shops for the papers and a pain au chocolat from the Delice de France stand. Nnnnnnnhhh.

Out in the real France, with two really fantastic greengrocers a few minutes' warm sunny walk away, I get more adventurous with my morning fruit salad and this one below was made from peaches, blueberries, raspberries, yoghurt, museli and squeezy honey. And melon, I think. The squeezy honey in France doesn't seem to leak like the ones in England. I'm on my second bottle.

This picture I just find really funny because it's all moody and thoughtful, but actually it's me eating yet another mini baby bel.

Peppery Peanut Coloured Conchiglie

I simply love this colourful conchiglie-sea shells pasta dish. The creamy black peppery peanut sauce naturally fills the shells while you are tossing them all together and coarsely cracked black peppers gives off a warm and spicy flavor and adds a depth to any dish. To give the whole pasta dish a little extra kick of fresh flavour, you might also sprinkle some fresh chopped basil leaves on the pasta.

• 80 g Black peppered peanuts
  
  ©angiesrecipes
  
  
• 1 Ripe tomato, chopped
  
  
• 1 tbsp Tomato paste
  
  
• 80 ml Water
  
  
• 150 g Coloured conchiglie
  
  
• 1 tbsp Olive oil
  
  
• 1 clove Garlic, minced
  
  
• 1/2 tsp Salt
  
  
• 1 tsp Black peppercorns, coarsly cracked
  
  
• Some basil leaves, chopped

1. Place peppery peanuts, tomato, tomato paste and water In the container of your blender. Process until it becomes smooth.
   
   
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil and cook the conchiglie according to the packet. When pasta is cooked, drain.
   
   
3. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil and stir-fry the minced garlic until aromatic. Pour the peanut puree into the pan and bring it to a boil. Season with salt and coarsely cracked black pepper. Add in the drained conchiglie and chopped basil leaves. Toss together.

Trying to eat in France while pregnant

So there's this thing when you're pregnant that you're basically not supposed to eat anything. I initially wrote "not allowed to eat anything" but changed it to "supposed" because you can, of course, do whatever the hell you like.

I don't suffer much from guilt - it just isn't an emotion in my mood paintbox - so that is not the reason why I'm not smoking or eating the following (READY?):

- soft cheese
- shellfish
- pate I haven't made myself
- cold cuts
- raw or runny eggs
- undercooked meat
- those fish you're not supposed to eat. Shark and stuff... but when would you eat that anyway? In England I mean.

So it's not guilt. That terrible motherhood guilt thing just isn't happening to me. The little sucker is fortunate as hell already to have a mother who is so brilliant at impersonations and who is so good at drawing sheep. I don't feel guilty about a damned thing.

No, the thing with me is that I really really don't want to look like a massive tit. I don't want to eat as much pate and blue cheese as I like and then get listeria, which (I didn't understand this when I yammed down a stitchlton-based salad when I was a fortnight gone) you are like A MILLION times more likely to get if you're pregnant and then have a baby born with no head. I'd just feel like such an idiot.

I don't want to be like a woman I know who carried on boozing throughout her pregnancy thinking "Fuck all those sanctimonious fuckfashes" and then had a baby with fetal alcohol syndrome. TRUE STORY. This is an educated, middle-class woman with a job, people. At the time I bet she felt pretty cool and dangerous. But now she looks like a tit.

The other reason I don't just eat whatever the hell I like is because my husband is really strict. "No!" he shrieks, snatching an amuse bouche out of my hand. "It looks a bit foamy to me, like they've just egg white. Forget it."

And please, just en passant, don't give me any of that tedious shit about how French women continue to scoff blue cheese and pate when they're pregnant. They do that because a) they've eaten it all their lives and are, I heard, immune-ish to listeria and b) the general occurance of listeria in France is about 80% lower than any other country, or something like that. I possibly made that last bit up. Or maybe all of it. Anyway, don't be all over my ass about it. PLUS! There is some kind of birth rate crisis in France so I'm not exactly going to be slavishly copying their gestation techniques.

What was my point again? Oh yes, so what the hell does one eat when one is on holiday in France and pregnant? One answer is artichokes.

I always wonder, when I consider the general form of an artichoke, who on earth first discovered that it was edible only if boiled for half an hour. It must have been a brave man. Or woman. The only thing you really need to know about artichokes is how to get to the heart, which isn't that easy. My husband, fortunately, is a dab hand. (Pictures below). I boil artichokes for about 25-30 minutes until the leaves come away with a gentle tug and then dip the leaaves in melted butter and salt and scrape the fleshy bit off the base of the leaves with my snaggly teeth. You can, of course, also dip the leaves in vinaigrette. Up to you.

I think one artichoke between two is fine as a starter. And also really rather romantic.

Continue to scrape off the pubey bits with a spoon as shown above, strip the rest of the leaves, cut and eat.

Chicken Papaya Salad with Herb Parmesan Vinaigrette

Papaya--"Fruit of the Angels", is a nutritional tropical fruit that is packed with vitamins. Not only does the fruit aid in digestion, it is also full of vitamins A, C and E, which are three powerful antioxidants that help reduce cholesterol and prevents heart disease. Some papaya extracts are even used to treat sports injuries and muscle strains. Papaya is a great ingredient to use for wrinkle prevention.

Papayas, when ripe, are most commonly eaten fresh or in salads. They're also great in smoothies. Unripe papaya is never eaten raw because of its latex content, but can be used to make the curries or stews.

Salad	Herb Parmesan Vinaigrette
1 Chicken breast, boned and skinless Salt and black pepper 1 tbsp Olive oil 1/2 Ripe papaya©angiesrecipes, seeded, peeled and cut into slices 1 handful Rucola salad A few of strawberries, halved (optional)	2 tbsp Olive oil 2 tbsp Fresh Parmesan cheese, grated 1 tbsp White wine vinegar 1/4 cup Plain yogurt 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard 1/2 tsp Dried oregano Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

1. Season the chicken lightly with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in the skillet until hot. Add in chicken and cook until tender and nicely golden brown. Remove and slice. Peel the papaya, and discard the seeds, then cut into slices.
   
   
2. Make the dressing by combining all the ingredients in a blender until creamy and smooth.
   
   Assemble the salad by arranging a bed of rucola on the salad plate. Arrange the chicken and papaya slices on top. Garnish with the sliced strawberry halves if used and serve with the prepared dressing.

Avocado Chicken Parmigiana

This is one variation of Southern Italian dish "Parmigiana", which is made with shallow-fried eggplants slices topped with tomato sauce and cheese. It is then baked until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

Some recipes use hard grated cheeses such as Parmesan or Pecorino Romano, while others use softer melting cheeses like Mozzarella, or a combination of these. I just used Parmesan (that's all I had when I made this dish) will definitely use the combination next time.

• 220 g Chicken breast fillet, halved lengthways
  
  
• 30 g All-purpose flour
  
  
• 1 Egg, lightly beaten
  
  
• 100 g Dried breadcrumbs
  
  
• Olive oil
  
  
• 4 tbsp Tomato pasta sauce
  
  
• 1/2 Avocado, sliced
  
  
• 2 tbsp Parmesan cheese
  
  
• Salad leaves, to serve

1. Preheat oven to 200C/400F fan-forced. Place chicken between 2 sheets plastic film and pound to 1/4-inch thick with a rolling pin.
   
   
2. Coat the chicken first in flour, shaking off excess, then dip in the beaten egg and finally coat well with breadcrumbs. Place on a baking tray. Repeat with remaining chicken, flour, egg mixture and breadcrumbs.
   
   
3. Spray chicken with olive oil. Bake for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and top each with two tablespoon pasta sauce. Arrange avocado over sauce and sprinkle with cheese. Return to oven. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes or until golden and chicken is cooked through.